Furnace with burner baffle attachment



Dec. 27, 1955 c. o. REICHMAN 2,728,312

FURNACE WITH BURNER BAFFLE ATTACHMENT Filed Feb. 12, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet l ,|4 FIG. I l5 l3 2 W," 29 25 I pile 1 f u g k 2 22 I I J l I l2 iii? ATTORNEYS Dec. 27, 1955 c, RElCHMAN 2,728,312

FURNACE WITH BURNER BAFFLE ATTACHMENT Filed Feb. 12, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 25 2s I 29 WWI. W 29 LL%L LJIII llhlmmfl FIG. 3

g. FIG. 4 Q

FIG. 5'

INVEN TOR. CLARENCE O. REICHMAN ATTORNEYS United States Patent 2,728,312 FURNACE WITH BURNER BAFFLE ATTACHMENT Clarence 0. Reichman, Dover, Ohio Application February 12, 1954, Serial No. 409,791 Claims. (Cl. 110-97) The invention relates generally to furnaces, and more particularly to domestic furnaces having conversion burners burning gas or oil. Such furnaces may be jacketed furnaces having cast iron or steel combustion chambers for circulating hot air, water, steam or vapor, and originally designed 'to burn coal or coke but later having an oil or gas burner installed in the fire pot. In order to increase the efiiciency and reduce fuel consumption it is desirable to provide some means for deflecting the heat from the fire pot upwardly along the walls of the heat transfer wall of the furnace so as to radiate most of the heat to the circulating air in the surrounding jacket before it escapes out through the flue pipe.

A horizontal baflie will accomplish this purpose but the major difficulty in applying prior baffles or deflectors to previously installed furnaces is that the size of the bafiie plate is limited by the size of the fire door of the furnace, through which the baflie must be inserted if tearing down and rebuilding the furnace is to be avoided. Because of the limited size of the fire door the baflle cannot be made suificiently large to effectively deflect the hot combustion gases outwardly against the furnace walls so that they hug the heat transfer wall of the furnace.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel and improved baflie attachment which can be inserted through the fire door of a furnace, and which provides adequate deflecting area within the furnace.

Another object is to provide a novel sectional baflie having adjustable supporting means for supporting the baflle above the fire pot.

A further object is to provide a novel baffle having supporting means adjustable radially and circumferentially of the furnace.

A still further object is to can be quickly installed in out tools.

Finally, it is an object to provide a novel baffle attachment which is adapted to be easily installed in various types of conventional furnaces, and which is simple in construction and inexpensive to manufacture.

These and other objects are accomplished by the improvements comprising the present invention, preferred embodiments of which are shown by way of example in the accompanying drawings, and described in detail in the following specification. Further modifications and changes in details of construction are comprehended within the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

In the drawings:

Fig. l is a vertical sectional view of a conventional hot air furnace, originally designed to be coal fired, and embodying a preferred embodiment of my invention;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged plan sectional view as one line 2-2, Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view similar to Fig. 1;

provide a novel baffle which a furnace substantially with- 'bars 24 may be varied, I

2,728,312 Patented Dec. 27, 1955 supported above the fire door of a furnace having a sloping wall;

Fig. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view showing a modification wherein the ends of the supporting pipes are fitted with shoes engaging the vertical wall of the furnaceyand Fig. 6 is a plan view thereof.

Referring to Fig. ,1, a conventional coal fired hot air furnace is .shown equipped with a conversion burner indicated at 10 and suitably supported within the fire pot 11 and ash pit 12, the usual grate bars having been removed. The tubular heat transfer wall 13 of the furnace extends upwardly from the fire pot in continuation of the tubular fire pot to a dome-shaped top 14 from which a flue pipe 15 projects, and a firedoorway 16 is provided in the wall 13 above the fire pot. This door way is usually substantially closed when the conversion burner is added, by inserting firebricks 17 and the like to deflect the heat along the wall 13.

The furnace proper is enclosed in a sheet metal jacket having the cylindrical wall 18 topped by a bonnet 19 to which the heating pipes 20 are connected. The fire door 21 and ash pit door 22 are mounted on the exterior of the jacket wall 18.

The novelbaflie attachment comprises sectional baffle plates which are, supported within the furnace by adjustable supporting means in the form of a plurality of radial pipes or bars 24 threaded through a central supporting ring 25. The ring is circular and may be about 2 inches high with about 8 inches inside diameter and 8 inches outside diameter. These dimensions may be varied as desired within the limits of the dimensions of the fire doorway 16. The dimensions given above are of a 2 inch wide piece cut from a standard 8 inch pipe, which provides an economical way of making a ring 25 which is easily inserted through the doorway 16.

The ring 25 is provided with a number of spaced threaded openings 26 for receiving the threaded ends of radial supporting bars 24 which have long threaded portions enabling them to be screwed into and out of the ring a considerable distance. While the number of supporting prefer to use at least four bars. spaced at suitable intervals around the ring, as shown in Fig. 2. As indicated in chain lines, I prefer to provide seven holes 26 equally spaced, as this spacing enables locating the supporting bars advantageously in various types of furnaces. Thus, the bars 24 and the holes 26 provide baffle supporting means which are adjustable radially by screwing them in or out of the ring, and are ad justable circumferentially by locating the bars in different holes.

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 1 showing the baffle The bars 24 may be standard /2 inch pipes, and their lengths are such that when their outer ends rest on-the ledge at the top of the fire pct 11, their inner ends extend a substantial distance into the ring, preferably about halfway between the rim of the ring and its center, as shown-in Fig. 2. The inner end portions of the pipes 24 which extend within the ring provide spaced supports for a center sheet metal disk or baflie plate 28 which is cut to fit within the ring.

The outer portions of the pipes 24 provide spaced supports for two semi-annular baflie plates 29, which have inner diameters such that they will fit around the outer diameter of the ring with a close fitting clearance. Their outer diameters are such that the outer edges are spaced a certain distance radially inward of the fire pot or the adjacent furnace wall, suflicient to cause the combustion gases to travel upwardly along the furnace wall after they have been deflected outwardly by the baflie plates. Thisv distance may be approximately 1 inch under normal con ditions, Preferably, the semi-annular baflle plates are smears made to overlap each other-at theirdiametrieal edges 30, and the overlapped portions may be secured by screws 31 after the plates are in place. The center dislc 2 8 and plates 29 may be made of 20 gauge galvanized sheetsteel.

The annular space between the outer circular edges of baif le plates 2) and the fire pot 11 should have an area approximately equal to or preferably slightly greater than the area of the flue 15 so that the combustion gases will hug the furnace wall without accumulating under the baffie to create a hazardous condition. This, the baflie plates 23 and 29 deflect all of; the hot gases outwardly to the heat transfer wall 13' of the furnace, so that the, hot air within the jacket is efiiciently heated for circulating to the pipes Ztlj The novel design and construction of the bafiie plates and supporting means enables inserting and positioning of the attachment through a standardsize fire door opening and still obtaining the proper clearance between the. outer circumference of the plates 29 and the furnace wall. Installation may be accomplished by firstinserting the ring 25 with two opposite pipes 24 screwed therein through the fire doorway 16. By rotating the ringwitl in the furnace additional pipes 24 maybe sorewedf in the spaced holes 26, and the pipes adjusted lengthwise so that they all rest on the top of the fire pot with their outer ends substantially in abutment with the furnace wall so as to center the ring.

The center disk may be positionedwi-thin the ringon top of the inner ends of the pipes, and the semi-annular plates 29 inserted one at a time. Since theinner diameterof a standard fire pot is about 30 inches, the'outer'diameter of the plates 29 would he about 28 inches, and since the inner diameter of the plates is about 8% inchesthe radial width across each edge 30 is slightly less than inches. A standard: fire doorway is about 12 inches wide by 10 inches high. so that a plate 29. can be passed" through the doorway by first inserting an edge 30' and then swinging the plate circumferentially as itis entered, meanwhile tilting the plate diagonally of the doorway if necessary.

in Fig. 4 the ends of the pipes 24 are shown engagingthe sloping, wall 13 of the furnace above the fire door to support the baffie in an elevated position. It is noted that certain furnace designs have recesses in the furnace wall and the spacing of theholes 26 in the ring substantially conforms to the spacing of the recesses, so that in such furnaces the outer. ends ofthe. pipes 24 canrest in said recesses for supporting the baffie above the top of the fire pot.

in the modified form of the invention shown. in Figs. 5 and 6, theends of the pipes 24- are fitted with curved shoes 32 for engaging a vertical furnace wall: 13A above the firepot, and may support the. baffie platesabovethe fire doorway as shown in Fig. 4. The shoes 32 may: be curved to follow thecontourof the furnace wall;

The improved baffie attachment is. simple and inex-. pensive to manufacture, and easily applied tov various. types ofalready installed conventional; furnaces without: requiring tearing down or dismantling of the-furnaces.

W hat is claimed is:

1.1a combination with a furnace having a. tubularwall and a fire doorway, therein, abafiie attachment including a central ring of a size insertablethr ugh-said: doorway d h v i umfe e ia ly: pac d; hreaded holes, d d n radi l hat-wt, p u al y.- t: bars: screwed ro h c r a n. of: i h les. and messed.- with said furnace wall at their outer} endswhile v their inner ends extend within said ring, a d' k: fitting Within: said; n and u r d. o aid. b s... annular, P es t ng a o ndl hs t s an preads 1021: said bars to form anfannular,baffie,platehavipgdts t ter; edge e y iacsut a id. uraa e a l.

n qm inst sn with a urnaveharingannular-wall;

nd. a pa r; as

and having eireumferentially spaced threaded holes extending radially thereof, a plurality of bars screwed through certain of said holes and engaged with said furfitting around the ring and supported on said bars to form d a firs. d orwa he ein: a a e-attendant; u httia a central ring of a size insertable through said doorway an. annular bafile plate having the outer edge closely adjacent to said furnace wall, the radial width of each semi-annular plate being such as to permit inserting the plate circumfercntially through the fire doorway.

3. In combination with a furnace having a fire pot, a a r f r wall xtending upwardly therefrom and a fire doorway in the wall, a bafiie attachment including a central ring insertable through said doorway, circumferentially spaced pipes threaded radially through the ring and having portions extending inwardly and outwardly thereof, the outer ends of said pipes resting on top of the fire pot, a disk fitting within the ring and supported on said inwardly extending pipe portions, and a pair of semi-annular plates fitting aroundthe ringand supported on said outwardly extending pipe portions to form an annular baffle having its outer edge closely adjacent to said furnace wall.

4;. In combination with a furnace having a fire pot, a heat transfer wall extending upwardly therefrom and a fire doorway inthe wall, a battle attachment including a central;- ringinsertable through said doorway, circumferential ly spaced pipes threaded radially through the ring and having portions extending inwardly and outwar'dly thereof," the outer ends of said pipes resting on top of the tire pot, a disk fitting within the ring and supported on said inwardly extending pipe portions, and a pair of semi-annular plates fitting around the ring and supported on said outwardly extending pipe portions to forman annularbafii'e having its outer edge closely adjacent to said furnace wall, the radial width of each semiannular plate beingsuchas to allow inserting the plate ci rcumferentially through the tire doorway.

5. In combination with a furnace having a tubular wall and a fire-doorway therein, a bafile attachment including a central ring of a size insertabl'e through said doorway; circumferentially spaced bars threaded radially through the ring and having portions extending inwardly and; outwardlythereof, shoes on the outer endsof said bars engagingthe furnace wall to support the bars horizontally in the furnace, a disk fitting within said ring and supported on said inner portions of the bars, and a pair 6 In combination. with: a furnace having a tubular wall and a fire doorway therein, a baffie attachment including ar central ring of: a sizei nsertable throughsaid doorway, circumferentiallyspaced bars threaded radially through; the ring: and having: portionsextending inwardly and outwardly; thereof, shoes on. the outer ends of said bars; engaging-the:- furnace wall to-snpport the bars hori zqntally in the, furnace, a. disk fitting within said ring and supported; on said inner portionsofi the bars, and a pair of; sern i annular plates: fitting around the ring, and supported; on, said bars to. form an annular bafiie having its outfit"; edge-closely: adjacent to. said furnace wall, the radiat width of; eachsemiannular plate being such as to permit inserting the plate through said doorway byswinging the plate circumferentially.

7. Inlcombination with a furnace havinga tubularwall and a fire doorway-therein, a-bafiie attachment: including a central; ring; of: a size=insertablethrough said doorway, circumferentially. spaced. bars threaded radially through the ring and having portions extending inwardly and outwardlyrthereof; the" outer ends: of said bars engaging: the furnace wall to support the bars horizontally in the-furaces. disk; itties within-m r e and Supported said inner portions of the bars, and at least two annular plate sections fitting around the ring and supported on said bars to form an annular bafile having its outer edge closely adjacent to but spaced from said furnace wall.

8. In combination with a furnace having a tubular wall and a fire doorway therein, a bafile attachment including a central ring of a size insertable through said doorway, circumferentially spaced bars threaded radially through the ring and having portions extending inwardly and outwardly thereof, the outer ends of said bars engaging the furnace wall to support the bars horizontally in the furnace, a disk fitting Within the ring and supported on said inner portions of the bars, plate sections fitting around the ring and supported on said bars to form an annular bafiie having its outer edge closely adjacent to but spaced the radial width of each annular permit inserting the section through swinging the plate circumferentially.

9. In combination with a furnace having a tubular wall with a fiue and a fire doorway therein, a bafiie attachment including a central ring of a size insertable through said doorway, circumferentially spaced bars threaded radially through the ring and having portions extending inwardly and outwardly thereof, the outer ends of said bars engaging the furnace wall to support the bars and ring horizontally in the furnace, a disk fitting within the ring and supported on the said inner portions of the bars, and at least two annular plate sections fitting around the said doorway by with a furnace having a tubular a fire doorway therein, a bafiie central ring of a size insertable circumferentially spaced bars the ring and having portions extending inwardly and outwardly thereof, the outer endsof said bars engaging the furnace wall to support the bars and ring horizontally in the furnace, a disk fitting within the ring and supported on the said inner portions of the bars, and at least two annular plate sections fitting around the ring and supported on said bars to form an annular baflie having its outer edge spaced from said furnace wall, the area of width of each section being less than the diagonal width of said doorway.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,457,839 Hunter June 5, 1923 1,725,974 Brautigam Aug. 27, 1929 2,512,396 Throckmorton June 20, 1950 

